On the Northwest Coast
Meanwhile, there had been important developments upon
our Northwest Coast. We have seen that by the opening of
the Revolutionary War the Spanish had explored
the whole extent of this shore, nearly up to the site
of the modern Sitka. In 1778 Captain Cook was
here, on behalf of England, searching for the Northwest Passage,
a movement which induced fresh zeal on the part of
Spanish navigators, and watchfulness on the part of the Russians
in Alaska. Eight years later, the French navigator and
scientist, Count de la Pérouse, visited these shores and gave
to the world its first definite knowledge of Spain's California
missions. English fur-trading vessels now appeared on the
scene, bartering with the natives for furs, which were carried
to China, to be there exchanged for teas, silks, spices, and
other Oriental wares. Friction between Spanish and English
trading interests at Nootka Sound—where the latter had
made small settlements—led to a spirited controversy that
might readily have precipitated war, but which ended peacefully
in the withdrawal of Spain (1795). By this time,
American trading craft were sharp competitors for the China-American
fur traffic of the Northwest Coast. Owing to the
monopoly of the East India Company in British trade on the
Pacific Ocean, most of the Englishmen gradually withdrew:
thus for some twenty years leaving New England navigators
almost complete masters of the situation.
When Thomas Jefferson became president of the United
States, perhaps two score American trading vessels were annually
visiting Nootka Sound and the mouth of the Columbia;
British overland traders were operating among the Mandans
and their neighbors, at and below the great bend of the Missouri;
French and half-breed trappers and traders, together
with a few expatriated Kentuckians, were familiar with the
Missouri and its lower affluents; upon St. Peter's River (near
the Minnesota), British free-traders were profitably operating
among the Sioux, a proximity which caused much uneasiness
among Americans in the West. As yet, few citizens of the
United States were operating in the vast territory of Louisiana,
which Napoleon, dreaming of another New France in North
America, had now (October 1, 1800) obliged Spain to retrocede
to him; but of which he had not thus far taken formal
possession.
